Up the Garden Path

At first glance, Church Cottage in the Derbyshire village of Parwich looks almost too good to be true. It really could be a film set: the old stone cottage, with its quintessentially English garden, would make the perfect backdrop for an Agatha Christie tale. Added drama comes from the fact the garden is next to the churchyard, separated only by a low stone wall.

Lynette Coyne and Richard Tresidder realised immediately on buying the cottage, which is situated on a long thin plot wedged between the churchyard and a country lane, that this was garden. It was very much seen as part of this Peak District village. “We realised how open the aspect was. People would talk to us, over the walls, from the churchyard and in the lane,” says Lynette. “That was the lovely thing about the village.”